A lot has happened since the last update in June ’16 – Andrew (aka Chop) has been going modeling-mad on his PhD, Gwen had a Euro-summer break, Selena Uibo got elected as Member for Arnhem and the Dust n’ Health research team completed an epic roller-coaster of a 3rd trip.

The August start to the 8-week stint was a jolly one, as Groote Eylandt was in a festive-mood. The annual trivia night, Picnic Day, a brightly bobbing colour run and the One PeopleOne Voice festival was a welcoming return to Groote. Spirits high, we jumped straight into dusty community liaising & all things researchy, only to land in the front seat of a ridiculous roller-coaster ride that was the 3rd Groote trip for the year.

Ballooning fruit @trivia night | playing up @Picnic Day | the colour run | One People One Voice @Angurugu | softball shenanigans at One People One Voice | sunset at Marble Point

The festive incline took its peak with an awesome Learning-on-Country cultural camping trip on Bickerton Island with the Milyakburra crew. Together with the Land & Sea Rangers, yellow-shirts, school principal and teacher – we spent some priceless time with the local kids making spears, walking some beautiful country & fishing. On return to Groote Eylandt we joined the Quoll team, Skye & Tom, who were in fine-form. Island life was good - the research teams were going well, there were happy yoga times, beautiful sunsets & cinema viewings in Chop’s room – until the weekend that is…

Saturday night rolls around and there’s some sort of function at the Golfie (Groote Golf Club) so we all plan to head on down there. Having been invited out fishing on Bro’s boat at 5am Sunday morning, Chop’s prior knowledge of what a day on the boat with Bro means, sensibly ejected himself a bit after midnight. This however was to be Tom’s first trip out on Bro’s boat, so he kicked on. Chopper’s alarm went off at 4:45am and after banging on Tom’s door for a bit, the bushranger emerged and they headed off fishing. Tom is looking slightly underdone but also super pumped because this is his 1st trip out on a boat up on Groote. So the crew tried a few spots and were quickly hauling fish in. Tom was loving life. At about 9.30am though his hangover really kicked in. And after refusing sea sick pills, he was soon feeding the fish. This continued for 2 hours - he was absolutely hating life. With Tom indulging in a little kip as the crew drove from one spot to another, they got to the next destination and started fishing again. Tom was starting to feel a bit better and the sleep must have somehow reconnected some neurons allowing him to recall a memory from the previous night – which, upon sharing, sentChopper and Bro rolling around on the boat giggling for the next 5 minutes (Tom’s expression a mix of bewilderment and pride). He then went on to catch the best fish of the day, a massive Trevally. Lets just say that 24-hour-period was an emotional rollercoaster for poor old Tom, but the weekend had ended on a high.

Bro & Chop on the boat| Tom’s first fish | Chop’s broken joy

About three weeks in, the dust & health project’s best day on record came through in the small community of Milyakburra, Bickerton Island. The cracking work-week was then brought home nicely with the weekend – a visit from Gwen’s aunty for some scenic-flying, relaxo-boating & river-adventuring. But of course, this super summit of amazing-ness wasn’t without a crash all the way down the following weekend. What started off as a much-needed peaceful trip for Chop & Gwen to the beautiful Wayne’s World camping spot, turned into a hellish hot sand 4WD gauntlet, carved by blistering hands in a dire thirst-inducing sweat-a-thon. After several hours of digging, continuous-Haviana-blowouts and Chop’s finest driving moment, the research duo finally exited the sand-dune desert.

Andrew on Gold-winning day at Milyakburra | Gwen preparing for flight | scenic views of Groote from the sky | Wayne’s World camping spot| Haviana pluggers lasted 5 more weeks!

By the 6 week mark Umbakumba became a well-known scene for the research-duo and the daily research routine began to take its toll. The long drives, usual Friday-Umby-malaise and community happenings led to the creation of a Groote Pump Up playlist (Link to Spotify playlist ) for the journey home after difficult days. Literally living and working alongside each other in remote field research naturally means there is little solo time – which can inevitably lead to some grating moments and, let’s say, interesting communication break-throughs. Skye & Tom had flown off, and for the dusty-health-research duo the final 2 weeks played out with blunt-to-the-point communications, tense laughter and itchy feet to get off-Eylandt – but not before a visit from the boss.

Robbie & Nat (new Quoll-PhD-er) arrived on Groote to two highly-strung-worn-out versions of Chop & Gwen – Eylandt fever had well and truly set in. Gwen was pleased to be relieved of deciphering Chop’s stories (which she had begun to ignore) as they were then directed towards Robbie – who suitably shares Chop’s wavelength (much to Chop’s satisfaction & relief of having to constantly explain at length to Gwen). Just in time for the weekend (and the duo’s sanity), the 4-person Wilson team headed out for a camping trip, well started to anyway – 30 minutes in, a tyre bursts nearly pushing Gwen to break her year-long-sober-thon 9 months in. Looping back to replace a crucial spare tyre, the team headed out for a 2nd time, this time successful – setting up by the beautiful shady tree at Wayne’s World. Lots of Bohnanza-bean-cards were played this camping trip, we pulled off a delicious lamb roast in the camp oven, and decided that the ability to instantly repair the roof of your mouth after burning it on hot food would be the best ‘useless’ super-power.

Gwen flew off Eylandt soon after the camping trip, putting an end to data collection for the Dust and Health Team. Oddly, Chop decided to stay on for some more punishment and help Skye and Nat with trapping for a couple of weeks. This turned out to be a poor decision. A week of hard work under Skye’s whip took its toll with a golf ball sized boil growing in Chop’s armpit. This left him bedridden for a few days and shaved about 5kg’s off his Adonis-like frame. It finally ‘drained’ a couple of days before he flew off leaving him fit to travel…..and chomping at the bit to get out of Dodge.